Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Goldman Sachs might as well recruit from White House

"Fairly or unfairly, the most important thing to the financial community, broadly defined, is that the secretary of the Treasury be the president's closest confidante on economic policy," said former Minnesota Congressman Vin Weber, now a lobbyist with close ties to Bush. "That wasn't true of either Paul O'Neill or John Snow, so they're not taken seriously as spokesmen on economic policy."

He initially rebuffed overtures about the Treasury job, which is widely viewed as having declined in influence and prestige during Bush's presidency.

But Bush and other officials persisted, eager to bring aboard someone who might do for this administration what another former Goldman chief, Robert Rubin, did for President Bill Clinton.

They enlisted mutual friends to persuade Paulson to accept, and they had an advantage in Bush's new chief of staff, Joshua Bolten, [another] former Goldman executive.

Can it get any clearer than this? Goldman Sachs is attached at the umbilicus to the White House. Their offspring get shuttled directly to the executive branch and its departments.

Paulson would bring . . . credibility with financial markets at a time of huge budget and trade deficits and a particular expertise in dealing with the rise of China, one of the biggest economic and foreign policy challenges facing the United States.

[Bush] said Paulson would serve as his "principal adviser on the broad range of domestic and international economic issues that affect the well-being of all Americans."

BULLSH*T. His principal - indeed sole - job is to protect the well-being of bankers and other swindlers.

Paulson said he had a "keen appreciation for the role that capital markets play in driving economic growth" and added, without being specific, that the United States had to "take steps to maintain our competitive edge in the world."

Paulson's nomination drew praise from business groups and from at least a few prominent Democrats who have criticized Bush's tax cuts and budget deficits.

Rubin, the Treasury secretary under Clinton, said Bush's choice was "well done" and praised Paulson as "very well respected" and "thoughtful."

That's reassuring coming from the same guy who tried to keep Enron afloat before it cratered.

[Rubin,] called the Treasury and asked undersecretary for domestic finance Peter Fisher "what he thought of the idea" of the U.S. Treasury persuading bond-rating agencies to hold off reducing the freefalling Enron's credit rating.

This sounded like a good idea to Rubin, who was acting in his new capacity as CEO of Citigroup, one of Enron's top creditors.

[Meanwhile,] Paul Ashworth, a senior economist at Capital Economics, predicted that Paulson would not bring major changes to economic policy and that he would have to grapple with underlying economic forces that include a steady decline in the value of the dollar.

"The best he can do is try to ensure that decline continues in an orderly fashion and does not turn into a collapse," Ashworth wrote in a note to clients Monday.

In other words, it's hopeless. They ARE going to 'pull' the economy and NOBODY, no matter how savvy and well connected they are, is going to stop them.

A senior White House official who was granted anonymity to discuss internal personnel deliberations said Paulson was on the "short list" as soon as the White House began seriously searching for Snow's successor, with credentials that fit the times domestically and internationally.

* * *

Even as Paulson balked, the White House official said, the search kept coming back to him, and Bush instructed Bolten to keep pressing him. The official said Paulson's concerns also included his family life and succession issues at Goldman.

The turning point was the meeting with the president at the White House, during which the administration argued that reports of the Treasury Department's diminishment were exaggerated. "Sometimes it's more myth and perception than reality," the official said, "and when you get briefed on the reality, it becomes reassuring."

Paulson accepted the job the next day.

Bush must have promised him every working American's soul, and those of their grandchildren, on a silver platter.

Iraq is imploding

Two more Iraqis - both women - were shot dead at a checkpoint by US forces. One of them was pregnant. Between this, the Haditha massacre, and the state of emergency in Basra, there is NO WAY that US forces can continue to occupy Iraq.

Two Iraqi women were shot to death north of Baghdad after coalition forces fired on a vehicle that failed to stop at an observation post, the U.S. military said Wednesday. Iraqi police and relatives said one of the women was about to give birth.

A car entered a clearly marked prohibited area near coalition troops at an observation post but failed to stop despite repeated visual and auditory warnings, the U.S. military said in a statement e-mailed to The Associated Press.

Did they really fail to stop? Was the area really clearly marked? It's still too early to know.

"Shots were fired to disable the vehicle," the statement said. "Coalition forces later received reports from Iraqi police that two women had died from gunshot wounds ... and one of the females may have been pregnant."

You don't shoot at the windshield to "disable" a vehicle.

"The loss of life is regrettable and coalition forces go to great lengths to prevent them," the military said.

The statement was issued after Iraqi police said a pregnant woman and her cousin were killed by American troops while driving to a maternity hospital in Samarra, a predominantly Sunni city 60 miles north of Baghdad.

Good God. Must they always wait until they're exposed to 'release a statement'?

AP Television News footage showed the women's bodies wrapped in sheets and lying on stretchers outside the Samarra General Hospital, while residents pointed to bullet holes on the windshield of a car and a pool of blood on the seat.

"I was with the victims, one of them was pregnant and about to give birth," said a woman who did not give her name but said she was a relative of the victims.

This simply can't go on much longer. The situation is out of control.

__________UPDATE:

U.S. officials expressed regret that American troops had shot and killed two Iraqi women — one of them pregnant — whose car had entered a restricted area north of Baghdad on Tuesday.

* * *

A survivor of the incident who identified himself as a relative of the women told the Associated Press that he did not see any warnings, and said the post was new and unknown to many residents.

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

“[It’s] as bad as Abu Ghraib, if not worse.”

The massacre of 24 Iraqi civilians by US marines in November 2005 is turning out to be the worst war crime since the start of the invasion and the worst public relations disaster this administration has ever seen. That is no small task, considering the contenders for first place - Abu Ghraib,Katrina,Abramoff, and Plame, among other even BIGGER scandals that have yet to get the attention that they should.

[Meanwhile,] Iraqi leaders openly accused US Marines of killing civilians in cold blood even before [release of the] US military's official report [.]

* * *

The civilians were 'victims of a wrong operation,' Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said in a British Broadcasting Corp interview aired Tuesday. 'It is not justifiable that a family is killed because someone is fighting terrorists,' he said [adding that he would launch his own investigation.]

Though the murders themselves were beyond gruesome, the administration is fully capable and ready to dismiss them as an abberation. It's the subsequent attempt to cover them up that promises to be far more damaging, according to this Channel 4 video report.

"There is a direct conflict between the findings of investigation team, that is the on scene investigation team, and what was reported by the Iraqi citizens themselves."

--Senator John Warner, Chairman Senate Armed Services Committee

* * *

Senior officers are thought to have been complicit in covering it up and according to some it goes right up the chain of command[.]

"Clearly the individuals involved - if they are responsible for the things they are being accused of - have not performed their duty the way that 99.9% of their fellow marines have.

"We'll get to the bottom of the investigation and take the appropriate action if there needs to be any."

We can only pray that that this time the TRUTH sees the light of day - at which point we must demand that every person responsible for the murders and the subsequent coverup be held accountable before the world - first and foremost - GEORGE W. BUSH.

The photographs, seized by the US Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), show many victims shot at close range in the head and chest, execution-style, according to sources who have seen them. One image shows a mother and young child bent over on the floor as if in prayer. Both have been shot dead.

* * *

Eyewitness accounts by local people and a video shot by an Iraqi journalism student had already called into question the Marines' version of events in Haditha just over six months ago. But the photographs by American forces could prove the crucial piece of evidence in an investigation that is now expected to result in charges of murder, dereliction of duty and making false statements against up to a dozen Marines.

According to reports in the US, military prosecutors may seek the death penalty for those found guilty of murder.

* * *

According to local people, the rampage lasted three to five hours, and one man shot by the Marines was allowed to bleed to death for hours while his pleas for help were ignored.

* * *

The incident is now being described as potentially the worst war crime since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, comparable to the Abu Ghraib scandal and reminiscent of the massacre of several hundred Vietnamese villagers at My Lai in 1968. But peace campaigners say the findings raise the prospect that other incidents reported to have involved the killing of "insurgents" actually involved the death of civilians.

Briones' best friend, Lance Cpl. Miguel "T.J." Terrazas, had been killed the day of the attack by the roadside bomb, his mother said. He was still grieving when he was sent in to clean up the bodies of the Iraqi civilians.

One was a little girl who had been shot in the head, Susie Briones said.

"He had to carry that little girl's body," she said, "and her head was blown off and her brain splattered on his boots."

The highest-ranking Marine targeted by the [US] investigations is a staff sergeant who led the convoy[.]

“My purpose is to separate his name from the alleged war crimes that took place,” Hackett told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. “He’s not under investigation for anything related to what has played out in the press.”

And he's not the only officer 'not involved in the investigation.'

White House press secretary Tony Snow said Tuesday that President Bush was [NOT] briefed about the killings by National Security Adviser Steve Hadley [UNTIL] early this year when Time magazine began asking questions about the incident.

Bush hires LIARS with our tax dollars

It's not bad enough that the man lies US into wars which he regularly sends our children and neighbors to die for, he has the gall to use our tax dollars to pay hired-liars to do his dirty work while he's busy playing golf.

The Pentagon has awarded Rendon more than $56 million in contracts[!!!] since September 11, 2001, “as part of a coordinated effort to disseminate positive press about America and its military in the developing world.”

The contracts call for “tracking foreign reporters” and “pushing (and sometimes paying) news outlets worldwide to run articles and segments favorable to United States interests.”

These people are S-H-A-M-E-L-E-S-S - utterly, and irredeemably.

The report says Rendon was also granted a contract in 2004 to train staff at President Karzai’s office in the art of public relations, and “later received another hefty grant of $3.9 million from the Pentagon to develop a counter-narcotics campaign with the Afghan interior ministry -- despite objections from Karzai and the State Department.”

The report charges that the contracting system used by international donors is broken. It says, “USAID gives contracts to American companies (and the World Bank and IMF give contracts to companies from their donor countries) who take huge chunks off the top and hire layers and layers of subcontractors who take their cuts, leaving only enough for sub-par construction.

Quality assurance is minimal; contractors know well they can swoop in, put a new coat of paint on a rickety building, and submit their bill, with rarely a question asked.

The result is collapsing hospitals, clinics, and schools, rutted and dangerous new highways, a “modernized” agricultural system that has actually left some farmers worse off than before, and emboldened militias and warlords who are more able to unleash violence on the people of Afghanistan.”

Afghans, the report says, “are losing their faith in the development experts whose job is to reconstruct and rebuild their country...What the people see is a handful of foreign companies setting priorities for reconstruction that make the companies wealthy, yet are sometimes absurdly contrary to what is necessary.”

Sometimes??? Try INVARIABLY.

Meanwhile, the report says, “the security situation in Afghanistan continues to deteriorate, directly threatening ongoing reconstruction. Some of the fighting is simply the result of deep frustration and distrust among Afghans who no longer believe the international community is looking out for their best interests.”

The “deliberate use of warlords and militias in reconstruction efforts has only lent them more credibility and power, further undermining the elected government and fueling a Taliban-led insurgency that continues to gain power.”

The basic infrastructure in the country, the report concludes, “is in shambles; the drug trade is booming. This result should be seen as a major setback to the ‘War on Terror.’ To Afghans, who after decades of war, believed they would finally catch a break, it’s a heartbreak.”

Professor Beau Grosscup of California State University at Chico agrees. He told us, “This report confirms that Afghanistan has been ‘Enron-ized’ by the Bush Administration. As with the demise of Enron, the future of Afghanistan is one in which the ‘get rich quick’ class at the top will escape with their bounty, while the poor . . . will be left to live in the rubble.”

Hey, that sounds like what they're doing here in America. But, it's not as pronounced here (YET) because (1) we speak English, so it's harder to fool US; and (2) the press that prints dollars is located HERE.

If the U.S. media were doing its job, we would know a lot more than we now know about the state of affairs in Afghanistan. But most of American journalism has been so focused on Iraq that it has devoted scant attention to Afghanistan.

That's IF the US media were doing its job. But, it's not.

And it's not because they're too focused on Iraq. It's because they're too busy pushing their own corporate agendas, which includes 'staying the course' in Iraq and Afghanistan and opening a new battlefront with Iran, and to that end the US mainstream media continue to peddle its standard repertoire of infotainment LIES to keep Americans thoroughly distracted.

Chanting "Death to America," rioters stoned the U.S. convoy involved in the accident then headed to the center of town, ransacking offices of international aid groups and searching for foreigners in a display of rising resentment over civilian deaths in the war against insurgents.

Gunfire, at times intense, rang out across Kabul as hundreds of young men looted shops and set fire to police cars and station houses. Some people said U.S. and Afghan troops fired on the crowds. Officials said they couldn't say whether that happened.

In other words, they did.

The U.S.-backed Afghan government decreed a nighttime curfew and the city quieted before sunset. Yousuf Stanezai, an Interior Ministry spokesman, warned that anyone found outside between 10 p.m and 4 a.m. would suffer "serious measures."

Spreading freedom and democracy, alright - at the barrel of a gun.

President Hamzid Karzai went on television Monday night to decry the outburst, branding the rioters as troublemakers who should be resisted and linking their violence to the long years of conflict that wrecked Afghanistan.

"We will recognize as the enemy of Afghanistan these people who do these things," Karzai said. "You should stand up against these agitators and not let them to destroy our country again."

Who does this joker think he's kidding?

He expects ordinary Afghanis to recognize ordinary Afghanis as the enemy of Afghanistan?

Of course, that would leave only foreigners as friends. But then technically, once every Afghani is eliminated and only foreigners remain, what's left really isn't Afghanistan - is it now?

Patience with the 23,000 U.S. soldiers and other foreign troops in Afghanistan is fraying over recent deaths of civilians, including at least 16 people killed by an airstrike targeting Taliban fighters in a village last week.

* * *

"We don't want Americans in our country. They don't care about poor people. [NOT EVEN AMERICA'S POOR]They killed innocent people today and this is not the first time,"said Abdul Shakoor, a 28-year-old who joined in the protests after Monday's traffic accident. "They do it all the time and in the end they say it was a mistake. It's not acceptable to us anymore."

* * *

"This was a tragic incident and we deeply regret any deaths or injuries resulting from this incident," a U.S. military spokesman, Col. Thomas Collins, said in a statement.

* * *

The rioting spread from the accident site in northern Kabul to the center of the city, where hundreds of Afghan soldiers and NATO peacekeepers in tanks deployed.

Chanting protesters marched on the presidential palace and rioters smashed police guard boxes, set fire to police cars and ransacked buildings, including the compound of the aid group CARE International.

An AP reporter saw demonstrators pull a man who appeared to be a Westerner from a civilian vehicle and beat him. The man escaped and ran to a line of police, who fired gunshots over the heads of the demonstrators.

Some protesters said they were targeting non-Afghans.

"Today's demonstration is because Americans killed innocent people. We will not stop until foreigners leave the city. We are looking for foreigners to kill," said one protester, Gulam Ghaus.

"Recent attacks on civilians in southern Afghanistan and today's firing on people in Kabul show that Americans consider the whole Afghan nation as their enemies," said Mohammed Hanif, who contacted an AP reporter in Pakistan by satellite phone from an undisclosed location.

That basically echoes Karzai the Clown's statement.

Things are going to get very ugly in Afghanistan. Congress better pull our troops out before what happened to Russia, happens to US.

Monday, May 29, 2006

Cheney desperate to attack Iran, World Cup offers pretext

Lyndon LaRouche issued a public warning on May 24 (PDF), that an ever-more desperate Bush Administration, led by Vice President Dick Cheney, is seriously planning a preventive military strike against Iran sometime between now and early July.

The warning is based on a series of reports from well-placed military and security sources in the United States and Europe, who point to a particular convergence of developments over this period.

First, European security sources have issued dire warnings of serious terrorist disruptions of the scheduledWorld Cup Soccer tournament, which takes place in a dozen German cities from early June through early July.

These widely publicized soccer events are believed to be targetted by so-called hooligan gangs,neo-Nazi youth, and possibly by “Islamist” organizations, according to these security specialists. LaRouche pointed out that all of these countergangs have strong ties to the same European Synarchist financial circles who financed the Mussolini, Hitler, Franco, and Vichy fascist organizations during the 1922-1945 period.

That's not all. Ahmedinejad himself may attend the tournament. This came up in the context of having him arrested for denying the Holocaust.

From a strictly legal perspective,Ahmadinejad should be arrested when he sets foot on German soil. As Israeli attorney Ervan Shahar noted in his petition to Germany's federal prosecution this past February, Ahmadinejad commits a felony under German law every time that he denies the Holocaust. Shahar requested that the prosecutors enforce German law and indict Ahmadinejad in abstentia. Doing so would force Germany to issue an international arrest warrant against the Iranian leader and so make him liable for arrest any time he stepped foot on European soil.

This is in addition to a number of signs that point to an imminent attack of Iran.

U.S. military and intelligence sources have also reported that, during the month of June, three American and one French naval aircraft carrier groups will be converging on Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf waters near Iran. Thus, military assets will be in place, during that time frame, to launch a short-notice attack, ostensibly in “retaliation” for terrorist actions which would be linked to the Tehran regime.

LaRouche cited the growing turbulence in the international financial system as a further motive for such Synarchist circles to act now, to spread chaos throughout much of the planet—just as they did in similar financial collapse conditions during the 1930s.

“I know the desperate state of mind among the Shultz, Rohatyn, Cheney circles in Washington. I know, as do others, that they are seeking the first pretext for a preventive, unwarranted strike against Iran.

The confluence of events in June represents the kind of opportunity that, I fear, they will not be willing to pass up. Therefore, I would be remiss were I not to speak out publicly at this moment, warning that these madmen may be contemplating actions that would throw the entire planet into chaos and conflict..." [--Lyndon Larouche.]

“One is drawn to the parallel,” LaRouche continued,“with the Nazi invasion of France in 1940 . . . The cause of the 1940 fall of France was the presence, within France, of a Synarchist fifth column, associated with the Lazard sponsored Banque Worms circles.

“The security operations for the World Cup would be technically adequate and competent if the threats were coming exclusively from domestic sources, or even agencies like those behind the infamous 1972 Munich Olympics attacks. However, those capabilities are not geared to dealing with a fifth-column operation, of the sort being contemplated by Shultz, Rohatyn, Cheney, and their European Synarchist allies. No conventional defense is adequate to stopping that kind of assault.

* * *

“[T]he gravest danger to the world today comes from the Synarchist International—including Shultz, Cheney, and Rohatyn. They are seeking a Reichstag Fire or 9/11-type incident to give them the psychological leverage to launch their pre-planned attack on Iran. That can only be prevented by placing a very powerful public spotlight on their schemes, in advance. That is why I am speaking out today.”

Keep your eyes peeled, folks. These guys are cornered and any day now they're going to act - even if they pass up the World Cup.UNLIKE 9/11, this time, we the people must catch them red-handed.

Sunday, May 28, 2006

Oncologist kills both sons, then himself in Miami

It's almost unimaginable. An oncologist with two sons - one four and one eight - throws each from a 15th floor hotel balcony in Florida, both still in their pajamas, then throws himself. Tragedies like these scream out - SOMETHING IS WRONG IN AMERICA.

"This is an individual who had issues with his wife and selfishly took his children's lives," said Sgt Bobby Hernandez of the Miami Beach Police Department. "What would possess someone to take his two children, dressed in their pyjamas, and throw them over the balcony? It's a terrible tragedy."

Qinuo Van Dyk told police that she and her husband, a radiation oncologist, had experienced difficulties in their marriage during the last six months but had come to Florida to celebrate their tenth wedding anniversary.

She said she heard one of the boys screaming in their next-door room at the hotel and rushed in to see her husband jumping over the balcony. When she got to the balcony and looked over, she saw all three bodies lying on the roof.

"It's so horrific it's almost unbelievable," Sgt Hernandez said. Mrs Van Dyk, also a doctor, was last night being comforted by relatives and a police chaplain at the hotel while detectives continued to try to piece together her husband's motive for the murders.

A former colleague at the Norris Cotton Cancer Centre, New Hampshire, where Dr Van Dyk worked for two years before moving to the Alton Memorial Hospital 18 months ago, said:

"He had some difficult times and he had some trouble here. I guess he didn't sort of fit in."

You mean 'in the world?'

What a bizarre thing to say about a man who just killed himself and his two young sons. This doesn't sound like the act of an "oddball" who doesn't "fit in" or someone who's simply "selfish," as the sergeant described.

Obviously, this man suffered from SEVERE psychosis. How does something like this go unnoticed?

Both parents are doctors, so I will assume they are financially secure - though even the rich can live beyond their means. Come to think of it, both parents may be debt-ridden. Nevertheless, when a family with a relatively secure future IMPLODES like this - apparently out of the blue - you have to wonder, WHY?

Is this the price "professional" Americans pay for financial security? If so, God help us.

SUV liberal + Citigroup=Scary

Where do I even start: Robert Rubin, SUV liberal (Democrat) and former Clinton cabinet member. Constantly looking the other way while Citigroup starved and murder the people of this country, all so the selfish corporate terrorist could assure himself a position as a corporate terrorist executive at Citigroup following the completion of his bedroom (oops I mean cabinet) position.

But this corrupt corporate terrorist executive hasn't stopped yet. According to http://www.innercitypress.org/citi.html "Citi's proxy statement discloses that Robert Rubin, who could barely be bothered to stand up and wave at the annual general meeting, spent shareholders' $330,392 on personal travel in 2005". That is over 10x what I make in one year. But that my friends is the SUV liberal for you. It's okay for them to be corrupt, just not everyone else. Their behavior is often that same as that of a rethug. But yes, let us go on mindless clapping for Democraps who take 330,000 dollars vacations on our money, instead of voting for a true opposition party (like the Green Party).

It Ain’t Just Bu$h: Part 3 of 100 of Part A: Why they all must go!

So we will go alphabetically by state. I’m not going to waste my time my listing “party” affiliations. Please though if you don’t know their “party” go ahead and try to guess it. I can promise it will be a challenging game. I’m not even going to base this on their voting records, I’m just going to base this on crap posted on their website. If you are student doing research, please I’m begging you help educate your teacher and use this info. By the way these posts are based on the your Senutor's actually websites.

Alaska 1: Lisa Mur(der)kowski5. Great I can't even get past the first page without seeing something murdered. Look at me I murdered a fish that I probably won't even eat! But as we know the Democratic-Republican Senate is very fond of death, providing it doesn't involve rich white people dying.

4. The nutjob is actively promoting the lie that giving more money to the rich is actually somehow going to create jobs. Oh bull, the rich will buy extra rolexs meanwhile, the people starve and die from lack of health care.

3. The mindless blonde than goes on to salute the non-existent president (Does she mean Bu$h because stealing elections makes you a dictator and terrorist not a president). The stupid dumbass thanks dictator gasman for giving more money to rich worthless people like herself, while the poor (aka formely the middle class) starve and die from lack of health care.

2. And I quote "On the weekends, I fly back to Alaska to meet with Alaskans who cannot come to my office in Washington, D.C. to share their concerns with me". Somehow I don't think you do a lot of listening when you go back to Alaska! Are you too busy fantazing about your beloved corporate terrorists and pres gasman who you whore yourself constantly, too to actually listen to real people?

1. In the scary brainwash them while they are young category from the kids page "I commend each of you for taking the initiative to visit this site and learn about the issues facing our nation". What I have just written here is just the tip of the iceberg on the blatant corporate sponsered lies to children that are present on the website of this sick psychotic monster. Brainwash the children into starving themselves so that you can buy an extra rolex.

Power to the Green Party and Independent Progressives. Get the Democratic-Republican idiots out of office.

Christian Evangelicals and Israel: A Marriage of Convenience

Despite claiming undying support for eachother based on morality and freedom, it appears that the alliance between Christian evangelicals and Israelis is based on the former's insatiable desire to proselytize - tolerated only by the latter's insatiable desire for cash. In other words, opportunistic to the core.

Citing a mandate to support Israel, a Texas-based Christian broadcast company has begun televising Jewish evangelists for Jesus into Israeli homes, provoking outrage from Jewish leaders.

Daystar, which calls itself the second largest Christian network in the United States, launched its round-the-clock, seven-day-a-week programming on Israel's Yes satellite network on April 10. It debuted on Israel's HOT cable channel last week. The network's schedule features a roster of prominent Evangelical preachers.

Daystar's vice president for programming, Janice Smith, describes the new channel as a natural outgrowth of the American Evangelical community's largely pro-Israel sentiments. "[It's] the realization of the heart's wish of millions of Christians who watch Daystar and seek to support Israel by investing in her," she said.

But critics here and in Israel decry a broadcast lineup that includes several well-known Messianic Jews - converts to Christianitywho continue to identify as Jews and describe their adopted religious beliefs as natural extensions of Judaism.

Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, termed the network's Israeli initiative, "inappropriate, insulting and offensive," when told about it by The Jewish Week.

Keep your advice, we want only your cash.

As political and financial ties deepen between Israelis and Evangelical Christians, the clash points to an increased blurring of the religious and political goals of Christian pro-Israel groups, critics say.

One of the most prominent backers of the broadcast initiative, for example, is Pastor John Hagee. Spiritual leader of the 18,000-member Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Hagee recently launched Christians United for Israel, a national grassroots lobbying organization that seeks to mobilize Evangelical political support for the Jewish state. He has also raised millions of charity dollars for Israeli institutions.

Charity??? Israelis have the fourth biggest military in the world and are nuclear armed - they don't need charity.

In a meeting with Jewish leaders last month, Hagee emphasized that his new lobbying group would not proselytize. But at a broadcast in late March in which Daystar's Israeli initiative was announced, Hagee, whose preaching is a fixture in the network's schedule, enthused, "It's just all I can do to keep from getting up and dancing.It's a joy and it's a dream come true. If we are able to preach the gospel without reservation ... it's a major breakthrough," according to JTA.

Daystar's Israeli program schedule . . . includes "Rabbi" Jonathan Bernis, the host of "Jewish Voice Today." Bernis states that his ministry "is dedicatedto bringing the Gospel of Yeshua - Jesus - to the Jews first," and "to educate and equip Christians to understand and appreciate the Jewish roots of their faith, and to impart to them a love for Israel and the Jewish people."

* * *

The programs of Zola Levitt, a televangelist who died last month, also continue to be broadcast on Daystar posthumously. Levitt, according to the Zola Levitt Ministries Web site, was "a Jewish Christian thoroughly educated in the synagogues and brought to the Messiah in 1971." The ministry's mission continues to be "the evangelism of the unbelievers and the exhortation of the believers," the Web site states.

Sid Roth, host of another Daystar show, describes himself as "a Jewish believer in Jesus as the Messiah." His Web site states that "as the host of the Messianic Vision, a nationally syndicated radio, television, and publishing ministry, Sid has been on the cutting edge of Jewish evangelism for more than twenty-five years."

Foxman said the network's use of Messianic Jews "crosses the line."

Babble all you like, but not through Jews.

"If they support Israel because they believe it will help hasten the second coming [of Jesus], that's fine," he explained. "If they want to broadcast their support of Israel, wonderful. They're entitled even to broadcast their Evangelical programs. But to utilize Messianic Jews is inappropriate, insulting and offensive."

"We have watched several hours of Daystar's programming, and it's obvious that they're not only teaching about Christianity," Zinger said. "Their real purpose is to try to convince as many people as possible to become Christians. They believe that unless that happens, their Messiah - Jesus - won't come. For [Evangelical Christians], Israel is the place to save souls."

* * *

Despite this, Levy, Daystar's Israeli partner, insisted the channel is merely a vehicle for Christians "to show their love of Israel. It's not calling on Israelis to donate money or to get the message of Jesus - not at all."

Of course not! Is that even possible? Donations involving Israelis flow only one way - in their direction.

Smith said Daystar had held extensive discussions with "key leaders, both in the United States and in Israel" before launching its Israeli affiliate. "We discussed a strategy whereby Daystar's intentions to be a blessing, by sincerely helping the people in Israel with our financial support and prayers, would be seen as a genuine desire to help people around the world, specifically Israel," she said.

What kind of "key leaders?" Spiritual, Business, or Political? That would shed some much needed light on the nature of this coalition.

Yoram Mokady, chairman of the Communication Ministry's Council for Cable and Satellite Broadcasting said that Daystar, like all other channels broadcasting in Israel, must abide by the ministry's rules.

These essentially are prohibitions on harming other religions, exercising undue influence, threats or humiliation, or soliciting donations, she said. Broadcasters, he said, are warned to exercise extreme caution in these matters.

Shouldn't that so-called prohibition stop them from supporting Israelis, who regularly and systematically threaten AND humiliate both Muslim and Christian Arabs and non-Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza?I guess not.

Saturday, May 27, 2006

34 countries play hide-n-seek WMDs

In lieu of discovering WMDs in the hands of so-called rogue nations, the US and their 'coalition of the willing' are busy practicing how to plant them first - and then find them.

In a drill, Turkish commandos rappelled from military helicopters onto a merchant ship that mock intelligence said was carrying weapons of mass destruction. U.S. commandos raced to join them from a nearby warship.

The exercise Friday, with 34 countries participating, was a practice session to prepare for intercepting weapons materials before they reach a country like Iran, Turkey's neighbor.

Officials say cooperation-building exercises like this are crucial to keeping Iran or other countries from receiving shipments of materials that they could use to help build a nuclear weapon.

You've got to be kidding. Playing commando on the high seas isn't going to stop anyone determined to get their hands on materials for nuclear weapons.

The better strategy would be not to provoke anyone, and stay focused on DEFENSE.

The drills began when a merchant ship left the Turkish port of Antalya without permission. Urgent intelligence reports then said the ship was carrying "smuggled materials." It was assumed they were weapons materials on their way to a hostile country.

Though it could have just as easily been a cargo of pirated DVD's from China.

Warships from the United States, Turkey, France and Portugal raced into the open seas and surrounded the civilian ship about 25 miles into the Mediterranean. Turkish helicopters taking off from the TCG Gaziantep warship engaged and chased off a civilian helicopter that was apparently trying to unload cargo from the civilian merchant vessel.

French and U.S. maritime patrol planes were also dispatched to monitor the area.

Once the merchant ship was secured and boarded by Turkish commandos from the air and American commandos from the sea via a motorboat, chemical teams boarded and began to search the ship. They eventually found a container said to be carrying chemicals for weapons, which was decontaminated when the ship was returned to port.

Officials from Turkey's atomic energy association, bomb destruction teams, police and customs agents also participated in the exercise, which included additional scenarios of searching vehicles carrying suspected weapons materials to an airport and a land customs gate.

This reminds me of a scene in Monster Inc. where the CDA (Child Detection Agency) descends on the scream factory in search of child-related items in order to "decontaminate" them.

Observers were hosted above a Turkish naval frigate - the TCG Barbaros - for the exercise, which is said to be the largest so far of the Proliferation Security Initiative, or PSI, a program started in 2003 by President Bush.

I wonder who these "observers" are.

Though officials have repeatedly said the exercise is not aimed at any specific country, all eyes are on Iran, which is not likely to see the hosting of the nonproliferation exercise as a friendly move by its Muslim neighbor.

Countries bordering Iran, including Persian Gulf countries and Turkey, have come under increasing pressure recently to cooperate with the U.S. and pressure the Islamic Republic to give up what the U.S. says is a secret nuclear weapons program.

Analysts say the exercise will not only help increase preparedness for stopping illegal shipments that Iran could use in a weapons program, but . . . will send the message that most of the world is united against Iran possessing those weapons.

"Iran already has most of what it needs for a nuclear weapon, but it continues to try to procure foreign components that would allow it to reach that capability faster and better," said Mark Fitzpatrick, a senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.

More proof that nothing good comes out of London.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has credited PSI with several successes already in intercepting shipments of missile and nuclear technology headed to Iran, but she did not elaborate on details.

Like the fact that these so-called successes only happen in her dreams.

PSI, however, is only one crucial part of a massive effort needed to prevent proliferation, said Charles Ferguson, fellow for science and technology at the U.S.-based Council on Foreign Relations.

Everywhere you turn, these creeps crawl out of the woodwork.

"My view is that PSI fills the gaps," Ferguson said. "The borders are porous in so many different areas, that's why we can't rely exclusively on PSI ... We also need to rely on more traditional tools such as export control, IAEA inspections and diplomacy."

The US could do without many costly high-tech gadgets if it just employed some good old common sense - like 'stop being a bully' and 'mind your own business'.

Ferguson said nonproliferation efforts concentrated too long on state-to-state transfers of technology and materials - until Abdul Qadeer Khan, the founder of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program, admitted in 2004 to passing nuclear technology to other countries, showing that the dangerous game also involved individuals or small groups and was getting more complex.

Pakistan shares a long border with Iran.

Expect Pakistan to be dragged into the fire any time now.

Officials from 34 countries observed or participated in Friday's exercise either from a naval ship or by computer, as militaries cooperated to track, board, search and disable suspect vessels.

Has all the trappings of a 'one world military' - just what's needed for a 'one world government'.

There have been more than a dozen previous PSI exercises held in other countries, though Turkey says this one was the largest yet.

When South Korea agreed to participate in an earlier PSI exercise, North Korea, also believed to have a clandestine nuclear weapons program, called it a "war crime" and threatened all-out nuclear war.

What really happened in Haditha

In the first minutes after the shock of the blast, residents said, silence reigned on the street of walled courtyards, brick homes and tiny palm groves. Marines appeared stunned, or purposeful, as they moved around the burning Humvee, witnesses said.

Then one of the Marines took charge and began shouting, said Fahmi, who was watching from his roof. Fahmi said he saw the Marine direct other Marines into the house closest to the blast, about 50 yards away.

* * *

In the house with Ali and his 66-year-old wife, Khamisa Tuma Ali, were three of the middle-aged male members of their family, at least one daughter-in-law and four children -- 4-year-old Abdullah, 8-year-old Iman, 5-year-old Abdul Rahman and 2-month-old Asia.

Marines entered shooting, witnesses recalled. Most of the shots -- in Ali's house and two others -- were fired at such close range that they went through the bodies of the family members and plowed into walls or the floor, physicians at Haditha's hospital said.

A daughter-in-law, identified as Hibbah, escaped with Asia, survivors and neighbors said. Iman and Abdul Rahman were shot but survived. Four-year-old Abdullah, Ali and the rest died.

Ali took nine rounds in the chest and abdomen, leaving his intestines spilling out of the exit wounds in his back, according to his death certificate.

The Marines moved to the house next door, Fahmi said.

Inside were 43-year-old Khafif, 41-year-old Aeda Yasin Ahmed, an 8-year-old son, five young daughters and a 1-year-old girl staying with the family, according to death certificates and neighbors.

The Marines shot them at close range and hurled grenades into the kitchen and bathroom, survivors and neighbors said later. Khafif's pleas could be heard across the neighborhood.Four of the girls died screaming.

Only 13-year-old Safa Younis lived -- saved, she said, by her mother's blood spilling onto her, making her look dead when she fell, limp, in a faint.

Townspeople led a Washington Post reporter this week to the girl they identified as Safa. Wearing a ponytail and tracksuit, the girl said her mother died trying to gather the girls. The girl burst into tears after a few words. The older couple caring for her apologized and asked the reporter to leave.

Moving to a third house in the row, Marines burst in on four brothers, Marwan, Qahtan, Chasib and Jamal Ahmed. Neighbors said the Marines killed them together.

Marine officials said later that one of the brothers had the only gun found among the three families, although there has been no known allegation that the weapon was fired.

Meanwhile, a separate group of Marines found at least one other house full of young men. The Marines led the men in that house outside, some still in their underwear, and away to detention.

The final victims of the day happened upon the scene inadvertently, witnesses said. Four male college students -- Khalid Ayada al-Zawi, Wajdi Ayada al-Zawi, Mohammed Battal Mahmoud and Akram Hamid Flayeh -- had left the Technical Institute in Saqlawiyah for the weekend to stay with one of their families on the street, said Fahmi, a friend of the young men.

According to Fahmi, the young men and their driver turned onto the street and saw the wrecked Humvee and the Marines. Khidher threw the car into reverse, trying to back away at full speed, Fahmi said, and the Marines opened fire from about 30 yards away, killing all the men inside the taxi.

At some point on Nov. 19, Marines in an armored convoy arrived at Haditha's hospital. They placed the bodies of the victims in the garden of the hospital and left without explanation, said Mohammed al-Hadithi, one of the hospital officials who helped carry the bodies inside. By some accounts, some of the corpses were burnt.

The remains of the 24 lie today in a cemetery called Martyrs' Graveyard. Stray dogs scrounge in the deserted homes. "Democracy assassinated the family that was here," graffiti on one of the houses declared.

The insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq said it sent copies of the journalism student's videotape to mosques in Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, using the killings of the women and children to recruit fighters.

After Haditha leaders complained, the Marines paid compensation put variously by townspeople at $1,500 or $2,500 for eachof the 15 men, women and children killed in the first two houses. They refused to pay for the nine other men killed, insisting that they were insurgents.

[It] is now believed that the nine were innocent victims. By some accounts, a 25th person, the father of the four brothers killed together, was also killed.

* * *

Although Marines' accounts offered in the early stages of the investigation described a running gun battle, those versions of the story proved to be false, officials briefed by the Marines said.

* * *

Another point of dispute is whether some houses were destroyed by fire or by airstrikes. Some Iraqis reported that the Marines burned houses in the area of the attack, but two people familiar with the case, including Hackett, the lawyer, said warplanes conducted airstrikes, dropping 500-pound bombs on more than one house.

That is significant for any possible court-martial proceedings, because it would indicate that senior commanders, who must approve such strikes and who would also use aircraft to assess their effects, were paying attention to events in Haditha that day.

The Marines of Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines have rotated back home, to California. Last month, the Marine Corps relieved Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani of command of the 3rd Battalion. Two of his company commanders were relieved of their commands, as well. Authorities said a series of unspecified incidents had led to a loss of confidence in the three.

In Haditha, families of those killed keep an ear cocked to a foreign station, Radio Monte Carlo, waiting for any news of a trial of the Marines.

"They are waiting for the sentence -- although they are convinced that the sentence will be like one for someone who killed a dog in the United States," said Waleed Mohammed, a lawyer preparing a file for Iraqi courts and the United Nations, if the U.S. trial disappoints. "Because Iraqis have become like dogs in the eyes of Americans.''

If this is what really happened in Haditha, a fiery blow-back awaits US.

If the Chinese Communist Party's politburo members in their enclave in Zhongnanhai are screaming for doctors to treat their laughter-induced bellyaches, it is entirely understandable. This pious declaration from Pentagon hawks is too priceless for words.

How can one compare Taiwan, a self-governing island of 22 million people, to two weeks of running, jumping and shooting?

It's easy when you're not only a hawk, but also a dumb-ass.

One is priceless, the other a mere US$1.6 billion worth of infrastructure: sports venues, hostels and roads. . . .

Restoring Taiwan to the motherland, even over the very long run, is neither an empty slogan nor a political ploy by the Communist Party politburo to keep the masses in line. Feelings about Taiwan across the country are as strong as the sentiments against the Japanese, if not stronger.

In short, China can afford to lose the Olympics, but not Taiwan. As Chinese officials have repeatedly said, China would spare no cost to prevent Taiwan from splitting from the motherland. It is true that the Chinese nation sees the success of the Beijing Summer Olympic Games as a source of national pride, but this does not mean it will give up on matters of principle.

Principle? What's a principle? --Donald Rumsfeld

Beijing has long appreciated Washington's understanding and acceptance of the one-China policy, especially the earnest intent behind the formulation of the Anti-Secession Law just over a year ago. For historical reasons, however, the US had to continue standing behind Taipei. The United States would inevitably be drawn into any war between mainland China and Taiwan.

Implicit in Zoellick's words is the US view that it does not want to go to war with China for the sake of Taiwanese independence, particularly if such a war is provoked by Taipei.

But, noooo! The Pentagon has to go out of its way to fan the flames.

The secondary message: No war, please - not for the next 20-30 years at least. For that time the US can remain the world's superpower, global cop or whatever it wants to be, so long as it does not go out of its way to step on China's toes.

Now, is that too much to ask?

Within these parameters there can obviously be a lot of give and take.China's domestic savings totaled 15.863 trillion yuan ($1.98 trillion) at the end of April, according to the People's Bank of China.

$1.98 TRILLION in SAVINGS!!! Read it and weep, America!

Meanwhile, our Congress had to raise the debt ceiling that much a few weeks ago just to accommodate America's mushrooming bankruptcy!

[China's savings is] unimaginable wealth.

And you would think ours was unimaginable bankruptcy. But, it's not only imaginable - it's REAL!

Buying Boeing airplanes by the hundreds is no problem [for China]. With many other high-tech purchases China can keep many, many Americans in high-end jobs.

It is mainly the low-end jobs that are migrating from the US to China and elsewhere. There, too, China can eventually work together with US industries to keep some jobs in the United States. But to threaten China with loss of the Olympics over Taiwan?

What on earth were those imbeciles thinking?

It would appear the Pentagon hawks have heard neither of former treasury secretary Lawrence Summers nor of his views on the precarious position of the US economy or even its military power when the dollar is at the mercy of China and other Asian countries.

China alone will be holding more than $1 trillion in US dollar assets a full year before the Olympics.

One false move and America's economic goose is cooked.

When China and the other holders of US debts decide to abandon them, the dollar will go down the drain. That was the essence of Summers' "balance of financial terror" pronouncement.

The Pentagon hawks obviously are not economists. Nor were they paying attention to Summers; perhaps not even to Zoellick.

Indeed, all the facts seem to point to their being utterly bereft of brains.

Chen Shui-bian is counting on such ignorance or lack of attention on the part of the Pentagon hawks. He wants American blood spilled.

"We don't even know the person shown on Jordanian television," the statement said on a Web site that has posted messages from al-Qaida, al-Qaida in Iraq and other militant groups in the past.

"All that has been shown was merely a play written by the Black House gang and performed on TV by their agents in the region," it said, referring to the White House and its alliance with Jordan.

Whoops!

Nevermind. It's our word against theirs.

The authenticity of the statement could not be independently verified.

And ours is Live!, elaborate and action filled. People love this stuff.

In a confession aired on prime-time television in Jordan Tuesday, al-Karbouly said he was a member of al-Qaida in Iraq, and that its leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, knew details of his operations to kill and kidnap Arabs traveling between Iraq and Jordan.

They later changed their story, saying he was lured to the kingdom to face arrest.

Propaganda 101: If you want people to believe the lies, stick to similar versions of a story - not polar opposites.

A Western security official based in Amman, speaking on condition of anonymity because he didn't have authorization to address the media, said the suspect did not appear to be a major figure in the insurgent group.

The guy's a fake!

But, that didn't stop Jordanian officials from trying to capitalize on their latest 'al-Qaida catch.'

Jordanian officials hailed al-Karbouly's arrest as a major "foreign operation."

"It was in line with the state's decision to move from the defensive ranks to launch an offensive against al-Qaida in Iraq," former Information Minister Saleh Qallab said.

Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility for Nov. 9 suicide blasts in Amman hotels that killed 63 people, and several other plots in Jordan, including the 2002 slaying of a U.S. official in Amman and a failed attempt in 2004 to use chemical weapons against Jordan's intelligence department.

Mess with Jordan and you're going to pay - even if it's by proxy.

Al-Zarqawi opposes Jordan's moderate stance on Islam, its longtime alliance with the United States and the peace treaty it signed with Israel in 1994. A Jordanian military court has sentenced him to death in absentia three times for terror plots against his native Jordan.

Talk aboutover-kill.

On television Al-Karbouly, also known as Abu Huthayfa, said he killed a Jordanian truck driver and kidnapped two Moroccan embassy employees, four Iraqi national guards and an Iraqi finance ministry official.

He said the Moroccans were killed. But Iraq's interior ministry said there was no proof to his claim.

Looks like this guy is making the most of his day in the sun.

The Moroccan state news agency reported that Moroccan and Jordanian officials are investigating al-Karbouly's claims about the Moroccans.

Sure. Brag first, verify later.

By the time the truth comes out, a new lie is hatched to distract from the previous lies and incompetence.

"Today, they (the U.S. and its allies) are hatching plots. They want to provoke differences, divisions, disappointment ... to prevent the Iranian nation from achieving all of its rights," Ahmadinejad told thousands of people in Khorramshahr in southwestern Iran.

* * *

Other Iranian officials were also quick to stress the nation's unity in the standoff with Washington, which accuses Iran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons.

"It is clear that the evil hands of foreigners are making efforts to provoke tribal, ethnic, and religious differences under the present circumstances," State Public Prosecutor Ghorban Ali Dorri Najafabadi was quoted Tuesday as saying by state-run media.

Hundreds of Azeris marched on Monday in the northwestern city of Tabriz to protest the cartoon. Some broke windows at the governor's office, and police had to use tear gas to disperse the crowd, witnesses said. The violence was also reported by an independent news agency, ILNA.

Azeris, a Turkic ethnic group, are Iran's largest minority, making up about a quarter of Iran's 70 million people, dominated by ethnic Persians. Azeris speak a Turkic language shared by their brethren in neighboring Azerbaijan.

The cartoon, which ran May 12, showed people from different walks of life - including an athlete and a tradesman - trying to teach the cockroach and he always answers, in Azeri, "What do you mean?"

There was no explanation why the protests broke out more than a week after the cartoon.

A January article in The New Yorker magazine reported that U.S. military operatives were already working in Iran, making contacts with anti-government ethnic minorities and gathering intelligence. Defense Department officials said the article was filled with mistakes but did not deny its basic point. Iran denied that any U.S. agents had entered its territory.

* * *

On Tuesday, Interior Minister Mostaf Pourmohammadi warned that opportunists were working in Iran to inflame trouble.

"Some are misusing the situation. Others outside (Iran's) borders are trying to propagate protests through their satellite channels," he said in reference to U.S.-based Iranian opposition television channels.

"We should preserve our vigilance, especially the media ... and not allow, under the current very important situation the country is in now, others who pursue certain intentions to misuse the situation," he said.

Never forget the power the media has to influence minds. The media can be our worst enemy.

Rohan Gunaratna of the Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies in Singapore said the increase in propaganda was apparently bin Laden's attempt to compensate for his group's loss of ability to mount attacks. The U.S.-led war on terror apparently has severely disrupted the portion of al-Qaida directly under bin Laden's control, he said.

That has allowed the head of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, to capture the spotlight on the world terrorism stage watched by militant sympathizers, Gunaratna told The Associated Press in a call from Singapore.

"The jihadis are increasingly looking to al-Zarqawi, who is on the ground and every day is killing Americans in Iraq," Gunaratna said. "Al-Zarqawi is stealing the thunder of bin Laden."

By stepping up his propaganda, Gunaratna said he believed "bin Laden is trying to maintain his eminence in the global jihad."

Bush gets A+ from Olmert

Bush couldn't have been more obsequious than when he described Olmert's proposal to unilaterally annex large chunks of the West Bank as "bold and innovative," asking only that he make one last pro-forma effort at negotiations before implementing it.

Under the plan, the major Jewish settlement blocs on the West Bank where most of the 250,000 settlers live would become part of Israel, with most other settlements dismantled.

Bush may have gotten an A+ from Olmert, but he failed US yet again by signing on to a plan that is as illegal under International Law as it is unjust and by further committing American lives to defend Israeli policy.

"We do not announce future issuance ahead of time, but projections of issuance based on current auction sizes and frequencies would lead to TIPS as a share of the portfolio reaching 13 percent in 2011 from 8 percent now," Treasury Assistant Secretary Emil Henry said in remarks prepared for delivery to a conference in Paris.

Henry's remarks were distributed by the Treasury Department in Washington.

Demand for Treasury inflation-linked securities is strong as seen from the growing market for such securities, Henry said. There are currently over $300 billion of TIPS outstanding and about $800 billion of inflation-indexed securities worldwide, he said.

Liquidity in the TIPS market is improving, Henry said. Daily turnover in TIPS has more than doubled over the three years 2002-2005, he said.

Of course! Why "buy" a bond subject to inflation, when you can buy one protected from it? Are there ANY drawbacks to this no-brainer?